


We All Die Young

by CommanderTeatime



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Crack, Fluff, M/M, Missing Scene, Post-Episode: s03e14 A Kiss From a Rose, Rebellion, Sleepovers, Sneaking Around, i was experimenting with style, kind of, please be kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-18 16:36:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18253712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommanderTeatime/pseuds/CommanderTeatime
Summary: Magnus is without a place to stay and Alec has absolutely no experience sneaking in or out of anywhere, so he texts the person he knows has the most experience-- his sister.Isabelle helps Alec sneak Magnus into the Institute when he has nowhere else to go.





	We All Die Young

**Author's Note:**

> Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some fluff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In these trying times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Izzy is still pouring over the results of Greenlaw’s autopsy when her phone vibrates against the table. She pulls off her gloves and takes the opportunity to tuck some hair behind her ears and out of her face before she checks it.

A new text from Alec--  _ ‘Are you busy, right now?’ _

She frowns at the screen just a little and sends back a quick, ‘No.’ before picking up her pen and tapping it against her fingers like she has been for the past hour or so. She goes over the information she knows for sure--

Greenlaw died because of what he was going to tell her. The Clave killed him. Heavenly Fire is an operation from the days of the Circle. The Clave has been torturing downworlders and somehow, this is all linked to the little chip she found in Greenlaw’s stomach. 

Her phone vibrates again, which is almost weird because Alec usually takes twenty minutes to respond to a text, even when he isn’t doing anything. 

_ ‘Can you meet me in the courtyard?’  _

Her frown deepens. She really doesn’t want to leave Greenlaw’s body unaccompanied and the last thing she wants to do is leave the chip out of her sight. She finds a little evidence bag in one of the utensil drawers and thanks the Angel for Luke and his brilliant thinking before tucking the chip inside and then placing it in her phone case. 

Alec sends another text before she turns out the lights--  _ ‘Iz, please. I’m cold.’  _

She sends back a quick, ‘keep your pants on’ and walks a little quicker through the halls and into the greenhouse. Even stepping inside makes her think of Jace-- it’s a Lightwood family secret to ignore how well the greenhouse is maintained, and to not at all question the dirt on Jace’s hands.

She reminds herself that if Alec was truly in trouble, he’d be texting Jace, and not her. Jace was always the one to send her weird messages at odd times of the night, asking her how long to microwave leftovers or how magnets work. 

Alec can’t be falling apart, she tells herself, because if he was Jace would be at her side already. She slips out the back exit of the greenhouse and into the Institute’s courtyard. She can hear talking and follows the noise until she finds Alec and Magnus, both snickering over something before they see her. 

Magnus has a box sitting on the bench, his foot resting there as well, he’s holding Alec’s phone in his hand and tapping it nervously against his thigh. Alec is holding a box with one on the ground at his feet, still smiling when Izzy approaches. 

“You said you need help?” She can’t help but wonder what the boxes are for and what they contain. Her mind immediately wanders to parties, but the only part she can imagine throwing is a Welcome Back party, or maybe a You Survived party for Clary. 

Whatever it is, she’s sure it’s Magnus’s idea. 

“Yeah, Magnus… needs a place to stay tonight, and I have to sneak him in.”

She has to give her mind a second to catch what he’s said before she can even begin to react. Izzy blinks and shifts her stance. “You, you’re sneaking him in?” 

“Yeah, and you’re an expert at sneaking out, so I need your help.” Alec looks a little too defensive for her to try and persuade him otherwise. She knows from experience that she can only win with Alec if he’s already exhausted. 

Izzy looks to Magnus for his opinion, and he only smiles a little bit, obviously not enthused at the idea. “You’re the Head of the Institute, can’t you use the Clave’s credit card or something?” 

“What would I write on the expense report?” Alec asks, moving the box carefully in his arms. 

She laughs a little, but only because this feels… exhilarating in the worst way. “Make something up? Say Magnus is a protected witness.” 

“For what case?” 

“Make one up.” 

Alec tilts his head a little and Izzy sighs a little. She knew it wasn’t going to go anywhere. Her brother is the most stubborn person on the face of the planet. 

She picks up the box at Alec’s feet and shifts it a little so she can rest it against her hip with her arm over the top of it. “You’re the Head of the Institute, you could just… stroll in there.” She reminds him.

“Personally, I prefer staying at a hotel.” Magnus adds as they start towards the Institute. “I’ve been looking for a good reason to return to the Ritz.” 

“It’s a thousand dollars a night.” Alec says in a dejected tone that almost breaks her heart. She’s never heard him sound like that, soft and disappointed, but only slightly. It’s like he’s forgotten she’s there in front of him, struggling to get her stele out of her pocket so she can draw a quick unlock rune. 

Magnus jiggles the door handle of the greenhouse entrance anyway and looks at the large panes of glass like he half expects better. He opens the door for them when Izzy manages to draw the rune correctly, and Alec holds the door open for him. 

“Okay, so, Magnus stays here.” Izzy says, setting her box down in one of the chairs. 

“You’re kidding.” Magnus frowns at one of the large fronds and runs his fingers over it like he’s stroking a cat. 

“It’ll be so much easier to stash these boxes somewhere and then come and sneak you in. Sneaking you in with the boxes is going to make it incredibly obvious. If we get caught without them, we’ll just say we’re on our way to Alec’s office.” Izzy looks at the two of them and sees the small smile on both of their faces. They’re enjoying this far too much. 

She can remember the countless nights Alec had caught her sneaking out to go clubbing or Angel knows what else. His room was always on the way to the greenhouse from her room. It was the path least likely to be populated at strange hours of the night. 

It all brings back giddy feelings of rebellion, although she isn’t rebelling against her uptight mother. Instead, they’re rebelling against Clave statutes that outlaw offering downworlders lodgings that aren’t a cell. She’s glad that at least in some weird form, Alec can finally have the chance to live life the way his inner sixteen year old wants.

Magnus settles down into one of the chairs and rests his foot on his knee. “I’ll be waiting ever so patiently.” He offers Alec his box which Alec gently adds on top of the one in his hands.

Izzy is still smiling on their way through the hall to Alec’s room. “You know, Jace would’ve helped you without asking.” 

“Jace and Magnus are… not close, right now.” Alec says quietly, carefully avoiding the edge of the corner as they make their way up the small set of stairs.

She knows he’s right and she wishes he wasn’t. If Alec had asked Jace, maybe they would’ve managed to work something out, or talked through something before smuggling Magnus inside. She also knows that if Alec had asked Jace, they would’ve gotten caught before making it to the living quarters.

Alec opens the door to his room and Izzy catches the door before it can close on her. They set the boxes down on the floor by the dresser. The boxes are intriguing and Izzy almost wants to lift the flap until she reminds herself that Magnus is Alec’s boyfriend, not hers. If it’s something truly interesting, Alec will share it with her at some point.

“Okay, you stay here.” She tells her brother and almost closes the door before he can stop her, but he does. 

“Why?” 

It’s not that Alec is too loud, although he can be without being aware of it. Izzy needs to know why Magnus is waiting in the greenhouse, why they’re sneaking him into the Institute, and it’s always easier to get answers from Magnus than from Alec. She gives him the same head tilt he had given her earlier. “Do you want me to sneak Magnus in or not?” 

He lets go of the door without another word and lets her close it quietly behind her. 

 

Magnus is exactly as she left him, reclining on the world’s most uncomfortable bench picking at his flawless black nail polish. He smiles and stands as soon as he sees her. 

“Do I want to know what you’ve done with the real Alec?” She asks as Magnus follows her into the hall of the Institute. Izzy lingers a little, checking around the corner of the main hall to look for the traffic of the mostly quiet Ops Center. 

They hurry down the hall until it opens into another cloister.

“I think Lorenzo jinxed him when Alec went to go put the fear of god into him.” Magnus whispers, following her every move. He carefully places a hand on the wall and lets his fingers trail against the wallpaper as Izzy leads him towards Alec’s room. 

She turns back to glance at him before checking the hall again. “Why was Alec trying to scare Lorenzo?” 

“Long story, short-- we made an exchange. He has my apartment.” Magnus matches her pace and straightens as they walk up the small set of stairs, looking like two normal people engaged in a normal conversation. 

Izzy is too afraid to ask what Magnus has exchanged his apartment for. She figures that’s part of why Alec seemed so on edge. The only other reason… she closes her eyes for a long second. 

“So, those boxes were yours. Please don’t tell me it’s anything,” Izzy can’t continue the thought in her head, she can’t bring herself to say what comes to her mind. The last conversation she had had with Alec about Magnus was about… things that she doesn’t want to think of them getting caught doing in the Institute. 

Magnus frowns and draws out the word, expecting her to continue her original thought. “Anything?” 

“Naughty.” She blurts out and Magnus laughs a little too loud. All thoughts of sex are out the window and she almost slaps a hand over his mouth to keep him from making anymore noise. 

They stand there in absolute silence, Magnus trying his damndest to contain his laughter behind a solemn face. Izzy feels like she’s outed Alec’s worries about intimacy to Magnus until he manages to speak without laughing.

“You think I brought boxes of  _ what  _ into the Institute?” Magnus is only blushing a little, and Izzy can tell that he’s only embarrassed because he nearly ruined their mission.

She can’t find it in her to satisfy him with a response other than, “Just… know that I share a wall with Alec.”

“Valuable information to have.”

They cross the hall quickly and Izzy is first to open the door to Alec’s room. He’s sitting on the bed, in a position that makes it obvious he had been watching the door waiting for them. Magnus relaxes once the door closes behind them. 

“Thank you, Isabelle.” Magnus says with a kind smile, somehow banishing the conversation that has still left her pink in the face. 

She gives Alec a look of warning as Magnus crosses the room and flops down on the other side of the bed. “Don’t get caught.” She says simply, and closes the door behind her. 

Izzy glances at the door to her own bedroom and contemplates sleeping, but Alec and Magnus deserve their privacy, even if Magnus does soundproof the wards, or whatever else he’s capable of. 

She takes the hairband from her wrist and pulls her locks up into a ponytail, then returns to her lab.


End file.
